Magazine Institutions and the Uses and Gratifications Theory

Secondary Research

Established: 1875

Who are they: The Bauer Publishing Group has grown from a small publishing house into a worldwide publishing and media company. They own 282 magazines worldwide in 15 countries, as well as TV and radio stations. They started in the UK with the launch of Bella magazine in 1987, and grew to become the UK's biggest publishing group in 2008. The group bought Australia's largest magazine publisher, ACP Magazines from private equity paymasters CVC in 2012, increasing the company’s value to more than €2 billion.

Types of magazines: Closer, Empire, FHM, Q

Mainstream or niche: Mainstream

Bauer

Established: 1958 Who are they: IPC Media is a subsidiary of Time Inc.,

and it is a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom; selling over 350 million copies each year. In 1958 Cecil Harmsworth King, chairman of a newspaper group which included the Daily Mirror and the Sunday Mirror, together with provincial chain West of England Newspapers, made an offer for Amalgamated Press. The offer was accepted, and in January 1959 he was appointed its chairman. In consequence, King controlled publishing interests which included two national daily and two national Sunday newspapers along with almost one hundred consumer magazines, more than two hundred trade and technical periodicals, and various book publishing interests. In 1963 all the companies were combined by the creation of a parent company called the International Publishing Corporation (known informally as IPC).

Types of magazines: NME, Nuts, Look, TV Times Mainstream or niche: Mainstream

IPC Media

Established: 1947 Who are they: Emap International Limited is a British media

company, specialising in the production of business magazines. Richard Winfrey started by purchasing the Spalding Guardian in 1887. In 1947, under the direction of 'Pat' Winfrey, the family's newspaper titles were consolidated to form the East Midland Allied Press. The magazine division was founded when the staff gambled that a weekly angling publication would be a hit - and in 1953 Angling Times was born. This was soon joined by another weekly heavyweight when EMAP bought Motor Cycle News from its founder in 1956. Both remain in the top 10 profit earners for the company to this day. The Winfrey family continued to work on the management team of EMAP until the early 1980s and remained large shareholders until two thirds of the company were sold to Bauer Media Group. On 29 January 2008, Emap PLC completed the sale of its radio, television and consumer media businesses to German company Bauer for £1.14bn. In March 2012, the company announced that it would be renamed Top Right Group, and that its magazines, events and data businesses would be separated into three standalone companies. The Emap name will continue to be used for the magazines operation, which accounted for around 18 percent of the group's turnover.

Types of magazines: Retail Week, The Architectural Review Mainstream or niche: Used to mainstream but has become

niche

EMAP

Established: 1985 Who are they: Future PLC is a media company; in

2006, it was the sixth-largest in the United Kingdom. It publishes more than 150 magazines in fields such as video games, technology, automotive, cycling, films and photography, and it is the official magazine company of all three major games console manufacturers. The company was founded in Somerton, Somerset in 1985 by Chris Anderson with the sole magazine Amstrad Action. Anderson sold Future to Pearson PLC for £52.7m in 1994, but bought it back in 1998 for £142m. In November 2009, Future reported a fall in profits from £9.5 million to £3.7 million (a loss of 61 percent) in the fiscal year that ended 30 September 2009. Future attributed this to problems with their US market, hit by a fall in the general advertising market.

Types of magazines: ONM, Total Film, Metal Hammer

Mainstream or niche: Niche

Future PLC

Looking through the portfolios that these 4 companies have, I would choose Bauer to own my magazine. This is because they have the music magazine genres closest to my own, and they are also one of the best companies for mainstream magazines.

Also, I read several magazines that Bauer produce, and therefore I know they produce high quality magazines, so my magazine would be in the best hands.

Who I Have Chosen

Blumler and Katz’s uses and gratifications theory suggests that media users play an active role in choosing and using the media. The theorists say that a media user seeks out a media source that best fulfils the needs of the user.

The user has 4 basic needs:Diversion, the need to escape from everyday life and to

relaxPersonal Relationships, to fulfil the need for

companionship and to become part of a social groupPersonal Identity, to find out about ourselves and other

people that reflect usSurveillance, to find out what's going on around us

Uses & Gratifications Theory

Appling this to a contents page

Diversion: Billboard magazine is good for escaping from the stresses of life, as it focuses on music which is a pleasure for most people.

Personal Relationships: By reading Billboard, people can include themselves in discussions about chart music

Personal Identity: Billboard magazine shows what the majority of people are listening to right now, which shows the reader what they should listen to

Surveillance: Exclusive interviews within the magazine keep us up to date with celebrities, and other articles inform us on what is happening in the music world